


Like You and Me

by setepenre_set



Category: Megamind (2010)
Genre: AU of Fools, F/M, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, can also be read as a standalone, pre-canon AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-26 07:56:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12552812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setepenre_set/pseuds/setepenre_set
Summary: Roxanne spills punch on her Starfleet costume at the KCMP Halloween office party and goes home to change into her...backup costume.





	1. Chapter 1

Roxanne goes window shopping on October 28th.

She almost doesn’t go; she has to fight with herself to do it. They released her from the hospital three days ago, but she’s still feeling a little shaky and fragile.

(still having nightmares about the smell of the purple smoke and turning around to see Megamind, who is—)

It’s ridiculous, she tells herself, to feel like this; she’s fine, and she faces much more dangerous things on a weekly basis—how many times has she been in a death trap? And she’s never felt anything like this afterwards.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it. Those were all with Megamind, and she’s never been in any actual danger with Megamind. If it had been Megamind’s evil plot she found herself in the middle of, instead of Psycho Delic’s, she never would have been caught in the hallucinogenic purple smoke, never would have ended up at the hospital.

So. Yes. She’s a little shaken up. Which is why she makes herself go shopping; it’s a way of proving to herself that she’s fine.

She already has a costume for Halloween; she’s had one for months, actually, has been planning it since August. A starfleet miniskirt uniform in command gold. Megamind always kidnaps her for Halloween; she had smirked to herself, when she bought the costume, thinking of his probable reaction to it.

Roxanne pauses in front of one window and critically regards a mannequin dressed in a witch costume. This costume is especially impressive in its artistic skimpiness.

A cold wind sweeps down the street, making Roxanne shiver.

This would probably have been more fun if she had someone with her. She doesn’t really have anyone she could have asked, though. Well—Wayne, maybe. They usually just meet up once a week or so for coffee, aside from the regular weekly Metro Man rescues, but she supposes she could have called and asked him along on this shopping trip.

Having Wayne with her would have pretty much defeated the point of going, though, would have felt too much like protection, hiding behind him. She refuses to do that.

Besides, Wayne isn’t really much for Halloween; he’s worn the same Elvis costume every year she’s known him.

Roxanne takes an absent step forward, letting her gaze fall idly on the next costume in the display. A vampire queen, she thinks, complete with a crown made of sharp silver spikes and black metal filigree like lace.

A cloud goes over the sun; the change of light makes her reflection come up on the storefront window.

It’s odd, she thinks, considering how very into Halloween Megamind is, but she’s never seen him actually wear a costume. How strange. Why wouldn’t he—

The spike crown, her reflection, the thought of Megamind—they coalesce without warning into a memory: his sharp smile and wicked tone, the first time he said—

_(won’t you let me make you my evil queen, Miss Ritchi?)_

And that’s—

—it’s a ridiculous thought, of course it is. Roxanne already has a costume, and anyway, she’s definitely not going to dress up as Megamind’s evil queen for Halloween; that would be unbelievably inappropriate! The Halloween evil plots are always televised; she can’t let him broadcast her looking like that to the entire city.

Her logic is sound, all the point well-reasoned.

Somehow she still finds herself walking into the shop.

* * *

 When she gets home, she buries every piece of the new costume she bought in the back of her closet, her face flushed and her heart beating too hard.

Absolute insanity; she can’t imagine what possessed her. She’s never going to wear it.

* * *

There’s a costume party at the KCMP office on the night of Halloween. It’s a yearly thing; Megamind almost always comes and kidnaps her there.

She wears the starfleet uniform, obviously, and does not even think about opening her closet and getting out the other costume.

* * *

“Care for some punch, ensign?” Hal says, leaning against the refreshments table and leering at her.

Roxanne barely represses the urge to upend the punch bowl over him in outrage.

She came all the way over here to get away from him! How can he not realize that? And besides which, there are clearly three bands of gold braid on her sleeves, so she is obviously dressed as a commander, not a goddamn ensign.

Hal is dressed (very unconvincingly) as Indiana Jones, a thing that Roxanne is absolutely certain Harrison Ford never committed a sin dire enough to deserve.

“No thanks, Hal,” she says, forcing a smile and holding up her cup, “I’ve already got one.”

Hal laughs a little too loudly.

“Right, right, yeah, of course, Roxy! Hey, why don’t you come dance?”

Roxanne freezes as Hal throws his arm over her shoulders and she wishes with sudden viciousness that she had worn the other costume; he would have thought twice about doing that if she’d had spikes on her shoulders—

It’s less an accident and more a moment of poor impulse control when Roxanne jerks her hand and splashes her cup of punch all over Hal’s face.

Hal splutters, looking comically dismayed and Roxanne barely manages to choke back the laugh that threatens to bubble out of her.

“Oh, Hal, sorry!” she says, with a complete lack of honesty.

She’s spilled punch over her own sleeve, too, though, and that she does regret—oh no; she likes this costume—

“Damn it,” she says, and shoves a handful of napkins at Hal, who is still spluttering. “I’m gonna go wash this off; excuse me—”

She dodges away from him and weaves her way through the crowd and into the hall.

The women’s bathroom is mercifully empty; Roxanne locks herself inside and runs her sleeve under cold water. The stain goes from red to pink, but it doesn’t disappear entirely, not even when she scrubs at it with soap and a paper towel.

Damn it. And by the time the kidnapping is over, the stain will probably be set and she’ll never get it out.

Roxanne glances up at herself in the mirror. Her mouth is a flat line of dissatisfaction beneath her tastefully muted lipstick and one sleeve of her dress is wet, with a pink stain on the cuff.

Why hasn’t Megamind come to get her yet? She’s been here for an hour already; he usually comes and picks her up within the first fifteen minutes; it’s the only reason she can face the prospect of going to a party that includes Hal.

What can be taking him so long? What—

(—what if something’s happened to him, what if he’s hurt or—)

_oh god no please no_

(the smell of purple smoke and she turned around and Megamind was—)

The sound of laughter in the distance, from the party. Roxanne presses her lips together hard and tells herself that she is being ridiculous.

Wayne said—Wayne said that Megamind was—

(alive not dead like he’d been when she turned around in the purple smoke and and saw him and)

— _fine_ ; Wayne had said that Megamind was _fine_ , and she needs to _stop this._

She runs a hand through her hair and takes a shaky breath.

God, she really doesn’t want to go back to this party.

Roxanne turns her head to look at the bathroom door, then makes an involuntary face. She looks back at the mirror and grimaces again.

In the mirror, behind her own reflection, the reflection of the bathroom window catches her attention.

An idea dawns.

Roxanne pivots slowly to face the window.

* * *

This is entirely reasonable, Roxanne tells herself as she’s climbing out the window. Entirely reasonable. The party was on the second floor of the office building, but there’s a sturdy fire escape stair that leads down to the sidewalk. So this is—

—Reasonable. Yes. Entirely.

Okay, so honestly, what it really is? Is _fun_. Like being sixteen again, sneaking out at night, the deliciously wicked sensation of escaping.

Freedom! she thinks gleefully as she jumps down to land on the sidewalk.

Now to go back to her apartment and prepare to be kidnapped.

Megamind knows where she lives; he can come and get her from there this year.

* * *

Roxanne slips off her boots just inside her apartment door, then unzips her dress and takes it off as she walks to the laundry room. She puts stain remover on the sleeve, and then she drapes the dress over the dryer to let it set.

She walks back to the kitchen, pours herself a glass of orange juice to wash away the taste of the cheap red punch, drinks it standing at the kitchen counter in her underwear.

The delightful feeling of getting away with something still persists; she climbs the stairs to her bedroom with a spring in her step and an extra sway in her hips.

She will, of course, be needing to get dressed again. She’s certain she’ll be able to find her old cat ear headband and tail somewhere…

…or…

She shouldn’t, of course she shouldn’t; she can’t actually wear the evil queen costume—

—but maybe she could just…try it on.

* * *

_“Uh, Sir—there’s a bit of a problem here,”_ Minion’s voice comes through the watch clearly.

Megamind, pacing restlessly beside the control panel, stops.

A problem? There’s a problem? Oh god.

He shouldn’t have sent Minion; he should have gone himself, like he usually does for Halloween. The Halloween kidnappings are some of his favorites; allowing himself to retrieve Roxanne for a kidnapping instead of sending Minion is always a special treat.

This year, though, after last week, after the whole thing with Psycho Delic, after—

(she’d _screamed_ ; she’d looked at him and _screamed_ ; Megamind had turned her around in the haze of smoke and her eyes had fallen on his face and she’d _screamed in terror_ and)

—well, after all that, Megamind had felt it would be—wiser—to send Minion in his place.

Only now, it seemed, there's a _problem_.

“What kind of problem?” Megamind bites out, placing his hands on the control panel to steady himself.

_“Well, it’s—Miss Ritchi—”_

Megamind’s stomach drops.

(oh god no Roxanne please no)

“What about Miss Ritchi?” Megamind asks, lips numb.

_“She’s not here, Sir.”_

“She hasn’t arrived yet?”

_“No, she—I was discreet, just like you said, Sir; I wore the disguise watch, and I asked around—she was here earlier, everybody said, but she’s not here now and nobody saw her leave…”_

Megamind feels himself go cold over.

(nobody saw her leave; something’s happened; she’s been taken; oh god)

_“Sir? Sir?”_

It’s possible that her boyfriend came to pick her up from the party, possible she left to have a private moment with her boyfriend before going to the Scott mansion for the annual Halloween party there.

As always, that thought, the thought of Roxanne with Metro Man, makes Megamind’s heart twist in a way that actually feels physically painful, and yet, he hopes that she is with Metro Man right now, because that is so much better than the thought that she might be in danger.

“Stay there,” Megamind says, “check the rest of the building, make sure she’s not there. Call me if you find her. If not—call me when you finish the search. I’m heading over to her apartment.”

_“All right, Sir.”_

* * *

He takes the invisible car.

The hoverbike would be faster, but it’s not anything like subtle, and if Roxanne really has been taken, then—

His mind races along panicked lines as he starts the car, puts it in gear. Another attempt by a villain to set themselves up as his rival, so soon after the confrontation with Psycho Delic? Had he not been clear enough in demonstrating why that was a bad fucking idea? Had—

_—oh god._

Perhaps he had been _too_ clear. Perhaps he'd given away the fact that he—if someone had seen the way he reacted to Roxanne screaming, the way getting her out of harm’s way had been his first priority, above dealing with the other drugged and panicked people, above dismantling the smoke generator, above finding Psycho Delic, above _everything—_

—Megamind had _pushed her into Metro Man’s arms and demanded that the hero fly her to safety_ , if somebody saw that—

His mind presents him with a series of horrifying images in quick succession.

Roxanne screaming as she looks at him, Roxanne screaming again but this time in pain, Roxanne hurt and bleeding, Roxanne lying lifeless on the ground with her eyes glazed and unfocused and staring at nothing, Roxanne dead on a morgue table an autopsy knife slicing through her cold flesh and an identification tag on her toe, Roxanne—

Panic blocks out the rest of his thoughts in a white blur.

(he doesn’t remember the drive to her apartment, later, recalls it only in little disconnected moments: his hands on the wheel, taking a sharp turn; passing a particular storefront; turning to avoid a group of children in costume, pulling swiftly into the alley behind her apartment building and slamming the car into park.)

He comes to himself a little, then, although most of his mind is still screaming white static. But he recovers his thoughts enough to realize that Minion has the disguise watch; he hasn’t gotten around to updating the second communicator watch to include the hard light hologram tech.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK he should have taken the hoverbike after all; at least with that he could have landed on her balcony; it’s no use the car being invisible if he’s stuck here on the ground looking like himself.

(call Minion; get the watch—no no no; there isn’t _time_ for that; there’s no _time_ )

((Roxanne on the morgue table being pushed into the freezer, being pushed into the crematorium furnace, being—))

He’s tears off his cape and spiked mantle and exits the car swiftly. The fire escape—there. He jumps, catches hold of it, and then pulls himself up and starts to climb.

It’s dark now; if he does this fast enough, he might be able to escape notice.

He’ll go to Roxanne’s balcony—no, no, not the balcony; if whoever has Roxanne has been watching him, they’ll know he usually uses the balcony—

Her bedroom window, then; he’d never use her bedroom window under ordinary circumstances; if they’ve been watching his interactions with Roxanne, they’ll know that, so they won’t suspect—

When he reaches the window, he glances inside. There’s no one he can see, and there’s no sign of a struggle. The door of the closet is only partially closed, but the opening is too small to offer a good view for someone hiding inside with a gun. And when he leans over, so that his body is visible in the window, holds himself there for a long moment, no one shoots.

If they’ve got her here, they’re downstairs.

Megamind jimmies the window open as quickly and quietly as he can, pulls his gun from its holster, and slips into the room. Gun upraised, he begins to move towards the closed bedroom door. He reaches for the handle and—

The door of the closet swings open.

Megamind pivots immediately, aiming the de-gun at the closet door and the person who—

He freezes.

She freezes.

The whole world, actually seems to freeze for a moment, like time has forgotten how to move, because it’s—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...to be continued.
> 
> Happy Halloween fic! :DD 
> 
> This story is in four parts; I'm going to post a chapter a day until the 31st (with one day having two chapters posted; I haven't decided which, yet.)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

Roxanne stands, frozen, in her closet doorway.

She’d just finished pulling on the last pieces of her costume—her costume that she hadn’t actually been intending to wear; she’d just wanted to step out into her room and…admire herself in the mirror for a few moments before she changed into something more sensible and went looking for that cat-ear headband she’s sure she has stored somewhere and now she’s standing here in front of Megamind dressed up as his evil queen which is _exactly what she wanted to avoid, damn it_.

“…uh,” she says, and then stops because—

…yeah, she has no idea what to say.

_This isn’t what it looks like?_

_I can explain?_

Except she _can’t_ explain, not really, she doesn’t know—

“—you’re alive,” Megamind says, the hand holding his gun dropping to his side, and Roxanne jerks slightly in surprise at his tone, at the raw relief in his face.

(he looks like Roxanne felt, sitting in that hospital bed, hearing Wayne say that Megamind was alive after all)

“You’re alive; you’re safe; no one’s here; nothing’s happened?” Megamind says, words running together.

His face is at least two shades paler than it usually is, and she can see his chest rising and falling rapidly, can see the whites all around the green of his irises.

“There’s no one here but you,” Roxanne says. “Why wouldn’t I be safe?”

An alarming thought occurs.

“Is there something happening?” she asks. “Like the—the smoke thing, something like that?”

“What? No, there’s—” Megamind shakes his head, less in negation and more as if he’s trying to clear it.

He still doesn’t look any calmer. His hands are shaking; Roxanne has never seen Megamind’s hands shake.

“No—I—you’re really all right?” he says.

“ _I’m_ all right,” Roxanne says. “Are _you?_ ”

Megamind stares at her blankly, as though he’s having trouble understanding the words.

“What?” he says.

“Megamind, you’re kind of freaking me out right now,” Roxanne says.

Megamind fairly throws himself backwards at that, shoving his gun into its holster, stumbling back into a dresser and almost falling, his face a mask of horror.

“Jesus, Megamind, what’s wrong?”

Anything that has Megamind this terrified has got to be really bad.

“Nothing! Nothing!” he says, voice rising on an uneven note. “Nothing; everything is—”

Megamind makes a choked noise in the back of his throat, something like a suppressed sob, and whirls away. He nearly knocks her dresser over in his haste to get past it and to the window.

Roxanne realizes what he’s doing when he places his hands against the sides of the window; he’s preparing to climb out. She darts forward without thinking and grabs his arm.

He jumps, making a small, shocked sound, and spins, too fast and off balance. Roxanne, scared that he might actually fall out the window, catches him automatically, one hand on his upper arm, one hand at his waist.

Megamind freezes, making another of those quiet, terrified noises.

“You’re going to break your neck if you try to climb down like this,” Roxanne says, “just—”

His breathing is more rapid than before, and his eyes are much too wide, his mouth trembling.

“—just sit down, okay,” Roxanne says, softening her voice.

He doesn’t seem to completely understand, is staring at her mouth like he actually can’t hear her, like the two of them are underwater and he’s trying to read her lips. Roxanne pulls him gently away from the window and towards the bed. She pushes lightly at his shoulders and he sits.

With a sudden burst of too-quick movement, he scrambles up onto the bed, scrabbling back from her, his eyes fixed on her face like he’s afraid she’s going to—do something—attack him, maybe, or disappear.

“It’s okay,” Roxanne says, trying to sound soothing.

Megamind gulps visibly, and then pulls his knees up towards his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs, still looking at her with too-wide eyes.

Roxanne stands there for a moment, at a loss as to what she should do. She’s never seen Megamind like this; the closest she’s seen him come to this kind of outright panic is when Minion got stuck in one of the malfunctioning battlesuits. He’d been breathing too fast, then, too, and he’d torn the panels of the suit apart quickly.

Minion had been fine, though; Megamind had put his hands on the shoulders of Minion’s robot body briefly, and then stepped away, pulling his cape around himself, fingers moving restlessly on the edges of the material.

He’s not wearing a cape tonight.

Roxanne picks up the extra blanket from the foot of her bed and drapes it over his shoulders, not knowing if it’ll help but unsure of what else to do. Megamind’s breath hisses through his teeth, but he pulls the blanket tighter around himself, fingers moving on the cloth as if on the edges of his cape. Roxanne hesitates for a moment, and then strokes her hand down the line of his spine.

He—shudders; Roxanne isn’t really sure if that’s a good reaction or a bad one, but if this was her having this panic attack, she’d want him to keep touching her.

She sits next to him on the bed, her hand still on his back, ready to pull away if he looks like he wants her to.

He doesn’t seem to want her to; he takes an uneven breath and lets it out, closing his eyes, then leans his forehead on his knees. Roxanne strokes his back again—jesus; he’s tense, every muscle coiled tight; she can feel it even through the blanket.

“It’s okay,” she says again, not knowing what else to say. “It’s okay.”

He stays like that for several long moments, his breathing slowing, evening out, although he doesn’t actually relax under her hand. Finally he’s breathing normally again. Roxanne still waits a few more seconds before speaking.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, keeping her voice quiet and calm.

“Nothing,” Megamind says, not looking up at her, forehead still on his knees.

“Megamind—” Roxanne starts.

“You weren’t at the party.”

Roxanne blinks. He still doesn’t look up.

“At the—? I was there earlier,” she says slowly, confused, “but then I spilled punch on my costume, so I came home to change. Wait, did you get there after I left? Did something happen?”

“No—I didn’t—no, nothing—but I thought—” he takes a shuddery breath and takes his head off of his knees.

Megamind shifts on the mattress, moving to sit cross-legged. He still doesn’t look at her, is looking at the window.

“I thought—something like the—the smoke thing,” he says, voice low.

_Oh_. Oh, Roxanne gets it, now. She _completely_ gets it, now.

And she feels a little less frustrated with herself for being so freaked out about the smoke attack. If Megamind is this on edge about it, then clearly she wasn’t overreacting as badly as she thought.

“That’s why you thought someone was here,” she realizes.

“Yes,” Megamind says, turning his head to look at her at last. “Yes, and that’s why I came through the—”

He meets her eyes and stops talking abruptly, goes very still. The expression on his face is—Roxanne notes distantly that her heart has started beating harder for no apparent reason, that it’s suddenly difficult to breathe—

Megamind leaps to his feet, stumbling back from the bed.

“I shouldn’t be here—” he says, words rapped out hard and forceful.

Roxanne stares at him, bewildered.

“In my apartment?” she asks.

“In your _bedroom_ ,” Megamind says. If his face was pale before, it’s flushed, now, lavender-pink across his cheekbones and on the tops of his ears. He’s got the blanket wrapped tightly around himself. “On your—”

He waves a hand at Roxanne’s bed, apparently unable to even say the word.

Roxanne, still on the bed, stares at him. He looks—he looks absolutely scandalized, actually.

She bursts out laughing.

“Seriously?” she says.

Megamind flushes even deeper.

“You’ve been in my bedroom before, haven’t you?” she says. “I could have sworn—”

“In the _hall!_ ” Megamind says, still looking appalled. “In the _hall_ outside of—not actually _in_ —”

He can’t even manage to complete the sentence. Roxanne laughs harder; she can’t help it; his reaction is just too ridiculous. If he was wearing pearls, Roxanne has no doubt he’d be clutching them. As it is, he’s clutching the blanket, and his face is almost fuchsia now.

“—completely—unacceptable—” he manages, “—inappropriate—”

“Oh my god!” Roxanne says, gasping for breath, still laughing. “Oh my god; you’re such a _Victorian;_ how did I never realize that? Victorian—music hall—melodrama villain—”

Megamind looks unbelievably offended; at the look on his face, Roxanne cackles.

“I am not!”

“You a _re!_ ” she says. “You _so_ _are!_ With the—the big stage-y presentation so that everybody can watch and you leave _pauses in the dialogue_ so that the a _udience can boo—_ ”

Megamind looks hunted now, his eyes darting from side to side.

“It’s not like that! It’s not like that!”

“—and the dressing all in black, and the exaggerated overdramatic gestures—”

“I _like_ black! I’m _naturally overdramatic!_ ”

“I’ve never even heard you _curse_ —” Roxanne gasps out, eyes streaming with mirth.

“I curse!” Megamind says, “I—”

“What, just not in front of women and children?” Roxanne says.

“ _Miss Ritchi!_ I—”

Roxanne dissolves into another fit of laughter.

“You! You don’t even use my first name!”

“Of—of course I don’t—not appropriate for—never given me permission to—”

“Victorian!”

“I am not—!”

“Yeah, okay, Snidely Whiplash!” Roxanne says, laughing. “You know, I always thought Nell should have just run away with—”

She cuts herself off abruptly, realizing what she was just about to say, feeling heat rise to her face.

Luckily, it looks like Megamind is too busy sulking to have noticed or guessed what she meant.

“I am _not_ Snidely Whiplash,” he says, blanket-covered arms folded, glaring at her.

“Right, sure,” Roxanne says, recovering her self-possession. “Not Snidely Whiplash at all. Nothing like Snidely Whiplash. I’m shocked you’ve never tied me to the train tracks.”

“Please, as if I would ever trust your safety to something that I hadn’t ma—” Megamind cuts himself off with a gulp, looking as if he’d like to bite off his own tongue.

Heat goes through Roxanne again, but it’s a pleased feeling this time. So he does know that he’s careful with her. She's always wondered if it was subconscious.

“Oh, of course,” she says in a sweet voice, “we wouldn’t want the death traps to actually be deadly. Family friendly villainy only.”

Megamind looks rather as though he’d like to strangle her, which only makes Roxanne feel more giddily pleased.

“It must be so terribly frustrating for you,” she says in arch, mock-sympathy, “having to deal with a damsel in distress who doesn’t know her cues.”

Megamind glares at her.

“You _know_ them,” he growls, taking the blanket off at last. He crumples it into a ball and throws it onto the bed. “You just don’t _take_ _them_.”

Roxanne shivers involuntarily.

Megamind’s face goes oddly blank.

“We’ll finish this kidnapping out in the hall,” he says, voice flat.

Roxanne arches an eyebrow at him.

“Oh, will we?” she says.

Megamind flushes again, in annoyance, as well as embarrassment, this time, she thinks, and waves a hand in a sharp gesture around the bedroom, and at Roxanne, on the bed.

There’s a kind of hot twisting in her stomach, the feeling that she always gets when she teases Megamind, a pleasurable dangerous-but-not fluttering sensation that makes her pulse race, makes her feel so wonderfully alive. It’s stronger than ever, right now, with Megamind looking murderously down at her, and her on her bed.

( _Temptress_ , he calls her sometimes, when she’s being particularly provoking, and Roxanne has always assumed that’s mostly a joke, with just the slightest bit of actual attraction behind it, but looking at him now—)

Is he actually tempted?

He looks more like he wants to kill her, rather than kiss her, right now, but something in his expression makes her breath catch anyway, makes her heartbeat catch as well.

Roxanne smiles at him, slow and wicked. She holds out her hands to him, wrists up.

“Oh,” she says, tone as maddeningly sweet as she can make it, “so you won’t come and tie me up on my bed?”

Megamind takes a sharp breath and goes completely still, color flying to his cheeks and ears, his eyes dark as he looks at her.

_Oh_ , Roxanne thinks, and a thrill of sheer and utter delight goes through her body like shivery lightning. _Oh_ , he _is_ tempted.

Megamind actually wants her. Wants her rather badly, if his expression is anything to judge by. He _means_ _it_ when he calls her Temptress; how did she never realize? Every time he—

A small corner of Roxanne’s mind wonders why she’s so delighted at this, but most of her mind is taken up with triumphant exultation. Megamind, the so very wicked and evil master of all villainy, _wants her._

And he’s been holding himself back. _Is_ holding himself back, _right this moment._

Roxanne’s never felt so powerful in all her life.

How far could she push him? she wonders. How tempting would she have to be to snap his self control and make him finally touch her?

She can feel her pulse in her throat, her wrists, between her legs. Nobody’s ever looked at her like Megamind is, right now.

Roxanne lounges back against her pillows and her headboard as decadently as she can, lets her lips curve into an expectant smirk.

Megamind swallows visibly.

“You know, you haven’t even tried to take advantage of this situation, Megamind,” she says.

Megamind jerks in place.

“I—”

“You haven’t even threatened to kidnap me like this,” Roxanne says, gesturing at her own body.

A slight frown appears between Megamind’s eyebrows.

“Like—?”

His gaze flicks down at what she’s wearing and his eyes go wide as he takes it in—the high black leather boots, the tight black leather leggings, the black corset with the blue lightning bolt on it, the cape and the spiked mantle, and the crown of spikes.

Megamind’s lips part.

He’s surprised, Roxanne realizes, with another pulse of pleasurable delight. He didn’t even realize what she was wearing before. That reaction—that look in his eyes, when she teased him, that wasn’t about the costume at all.

It was all for _her_.

“You always broadcast the Halloween kidnappings,” Roxanne murmurs. “If you kidnapped me like this, the whole city would see me dressed up as your evil queen.”

Megamind’s eyes meet hers. To Roxanne, the air inside her bedroom feels suddenly like the air before a thunderstorm, charged and electric.

“Aren’t you,” Roxanne says, “just a little bit tempted?”

Megamind doesn’t answer.

He just—looks at her. Like he can’t look away. Like it takes all of his strength to stay where he’s standing, to hold himself back from moving towards her.

Then—he takes a breath, and moves just slightly, as though he’s going to step forward, as though he _is_ going to cross the room to her.

_Yes_ , Roxanne thinks, without meaning to. _Yes, finally; please—_

_**“Sir?”** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...to be continued.
> 
> Thank you for all of the comments! I hope you all enjoyed the second chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

Megamind and Roxanne both jump at the sound of Minion’s voice crackling from Megamind's watch—Roxanne jumps to her feet; Megamind jumps in place and then turns away from her hastily for good measure, feeling as if he shouldn’t look at her, can’t look at her after—that, that moment just now, when he’d almost—

 _“Sir?”_ Minion says again.

“Ah—yes, Minion,” Megamind manages to say.

_“Sir, I’ve been through the whole office building; Miss Ritchi isn’t here.”_

Megamind swallows, trying to gather his scattered and flustered thoughts.

“—no, that’s—no, Minion, it’s—”

“I’m right here, Minion; it’s fine,” Roxanne calls, from the other side of the room. “We’re at my apartment.”

_“Oh, good!”_

“Yeah, I’ve just gotta—change,” Roxanne says, opening one of her dresser drawers and looking through it, “and then we’ll be ready.” She opens another drawer, looks through that one, then makes a noise of dissatisfaction. “—I’m trying to find my cat outfit; it’s like a headband thing with ears—Megamind, would you look under the bed?”

Megamind jolts a little at the words.

“Wh—”

 _“The **bed?** ”_ Minion says.

“MeetyouattheLairMinion!” Megamind says in a rush.

_“Sir—!”_

Megamind cuts him off by ending the transmission, and then, for good measure, turns off the communication feature entirely.

Roxanne, on the other side of the room, is looking in another drawer.

The bed is between the two of them. Megamind feels himself flush and drops quickly to his knees, peering under Roxanne’s bed.

Evil gods in evil heaven, when she’d—she’d been lying on her bed, dressed as his queen, and she’d asked if he was tempted and he’d almost—

—surely she couldn’t know what she was doing to him. Surely she wouldn’t—tease, like that, if she knew how much he—although how she could have managed to miss his reaction he doesn’t see—

He doesn’t see any headband under here, either. Megamind leans a little farther under the bed, peering into the dark.

“Ha!”

Megamind jerks at the sound of Roxanne’s shout, hitting the top of his head on her bed frame. He winces, climbing out from underneath it and getting to his feet.

“Sorry, uh—cat tail,” Roxanne says, holding up the thing in her hand. She puts it down on the dresser. “The headband really should around here somewhere, too; you’re sure it’s not—?”

Megamind sighs and drops to his knees again to look under the bed.

Roxanne bites her lip and looks across at the other side of the bed, where she knows Megamind is—although she can’t actually see him, with the way he’s kneeling to look under her bed.

Megamind is really being surprising patient and cooperative. Roxanne’s last boyfriend would have been complaining al—

A jolt of—something—something hot and cold at the same time, goes through Roxanne’s entire body.

She just—why would she think—it’s one thing to tease Megamind about being attracted to her, to—

( _finally_ , she’d thought, when he looked as if he’d touch her at last, _finally_ and _yes_ and _please_ —)

—well, all right, so she’s attracted to him, too; that’s —acceptable; _wanting_ him is acceptable; wanting some kind of—of wild fling with the supervillain, a one night stand with the ultimate bad boy—

“Ah-ha!” Megamind’s voice comes out slightly muffled. He emerges from beneath the bed with a triumphant expression, her cat ear headband in hand, and a dust bunny clinging to his collar. “Victory at last!”

Oh.

Oh god.

Megamind holds the headband out to her across the bed, then frowns when she doesn’t take it.

“—this is what you’re looking for, right?” he says, expression uncertain.

“—I—”

Oh god oh god oh god.

“—yes,” Roxanne manages to say, and reaches out to take the headband from him.

A shock that feels very nearly physical goes through her when her fingertips brush his gloved ones.

Megamind lets go of the headband, goes to turn away, and then stops and attempts to peer down at his own collar, noticing the dust bunny apparently for the first time.

“Ugh,” he says, pulling a disgusted face as he reaches up to brush it away, and he really had been telling the truth, his expressions really are naturally that dramatic, and Roxanne’s heart twists with affection, looking at him, and oh god, she doesn’t just want to sleep with him; oh god, this is so bad—

She’s clutching the headband to her chest, Roxanne realizes distantly, and makes herself put it down on the dresser. Her hands are shaking as she does it.

Megamind looks up at Roxanne, tilting his head and frowning.

“I don’t see the stain,” he says.

Roxanne blinks at him as though she’s confused.

“The—?”

“Earlier,” he says, “you said you spilled—” he waves a hand vaguely at her.

“—oh,” Roxanne says “—oh!—no, that wasn’t—this. I was wearing my starfleet costume…”

“Ah—yes, of—of course,” he says, “I don’t know what I was—obviously you wouldn’t—wear— _that_ —in public.”

(he doesn’t know what he was thinking, imagining that she might actually wear that in front of—)

“—why _are_ you wearing that?” he blurts out in sudden bewilderment.

It wasn’t for the party, and it’s not for the kidnapping, so what is it—

Understanding hits him like a blow.

It was for him. He’s the only person she was ever expecting to see her like this, so she wore it for him.

(Roxanne lying on her bed, arching an eyebrow at him, smirking knowingly and—)

She knows, he realizes, feeling sick. She knows—she knows exactly how much he wants her, and she wore that tonight just to—just to mess with him?

All of that, everything—she’d known exactly what she was doing. She’d done it on purpose, to—to what, to tease him? To mock him?

“I was—curious,” Roxanne says.

“—curious,” Megamind repeats, over the sound of his own heartbeat.

Curious.

Oh god.

So maybe the costume hadn’t been a mockery; maybe it had been a _test_.

A test that he undoubtably failed; she has to have noticed his reaction.

God, Megamind wants to curl up into a ball and hide.

“—what it felt like,” Roxanne is saying.

She turns sharply in place, the cape she wears flaring out around her heels, and Megamind wants to die.

Roxanne glances over at him, a teasing kind of smile on her lips.

“It _is_ fun,” she says. “I guess every day is kind of Halloween for you. Is that why you never—”

Megamind flinches.

_(monster)_

_(every day is halloween for you)_

“—I’ll let you get dressed, he says flatly, and turns towards the door.

(he’s not planning on staying in the hall while she changes; he’s planning on leaving as soon as he closes the bedroom door behind himself; he can’t stand this, can’t stand talking to her—can’t stand her looking at him when she knows how he feels about her and he knows what she really thinks of him, deep down—)

Roxanne looks after Megamind as he fairly flees towards the door. What had she said—? She’d just wanted to know why he never wears a costume—

“You’re really not going to kidnap me like this?” she asks, hoping her voice sounds more curious than plaintive.

Megamind stops and looks over his shoulder at her.

“I deal in mortal peril, Miss Ritchi,” he says, “not public humiliation.”

Roxanne’s heart does that terrible affectionate twisting thing again.

“Victorian,” she says, and is rather dismayed to find it comes out sounding like an endearment.

She reaches up, forcing her hands to be steady, and unclasps her cape and shoulder guards, then tosses the whole thing down on the bed.

Megamind’s face flushes, and then his mouth goes flat and he turns his face away, so that all she can see is the tense line of his shoulders, his neck.

“Besides,” he says, “it’s not as if anyone would believe that you put it on willingly. I don’t have much of a reputation, but I’d really rather not have people thinking that I would dress and undress you without your consent.”

Roxanne’s lips part. He takes the last three steps to the door and reaches for the handle.

“—only without my consent?” Roxanne blurts out as his fingertips touch the doorknob.

Megamind pauses, turns towards her, hands still resting on the handle of the door.

“—come again?” he asks.

“You wouldn’t mind people thinking you undress me as long as they knew it was with my consent?”

Megamind stares at her.

“I—” he says, “I’m not—really—what—”

Roxanne swallows.

“Hypothetically,” she says, hoping she doesn’t sound as desperate as she feels.

Megamind continues to stare at her for a long moment, a blush lighting up his face. Then he swallows, and visibly rallies, drawing himself up, lifting his chin.

“In the _extremely_ _hypothetical_ situation,” he says, “of you and I ever being in the kind of relationship that involved—consensual undressing—I am sure we can both agree that _I_ am not the one who would be distressed at said relationship becoming public knowledge.”

Roxanne blinks at him. It takes her a moment to parse that, but—

“You think I’d be embarrassed to be seen with you?” she says.

Megamind’s hand tightens around the doorknob.

“Why are we even talking about this?” he says, voice rising.

“—I mean, the whole supervillainy thing is definitely an obstacle,” Roxanne says, words coming too quickly to be anything like casual, “but you know we could think of a way around that, Megamind; I’m brilliant and you’re— _you_ —”

Megamind just glares at her.

“Supervillainy _aside_.” he snaps, “I am still not the one who would be distressed in this hypothetical situation.”

“What?” Roxanne says, “Why would I be—”

“Oh, for the love of—” Megamind growls under his breath in frustration.

He crosses the room to her in quick strides, then he grabs her shoulders and turns her around, spins her so that she’s facing the full length mirror.

“Look,” he says, hands still on her shoulders, furious expression reflected in the glass. “ _Look at you._ ”

Roxanne meets the eyes of her own reflection, sees her startled expression, sees the flush on her cheeks. And then she looks at Megamind, who is still standing behind her, his black gloved hands stark against the skin of her shoulders, the features of his face twisted in something that looks less like anger and more like bitterness.

“And then look at _me_ ,” he says, in a low, tightly controlled voice, but of course Roxanne is looking at him already.

His eyes are startlingly green. Roxanne meets them and feels her gaze caught, feels as if she cannot look away.

“I think it’s fairly obvious what’s wrong with this picture,” he says.

Roxanne swallows. In the glass, she sees Megamind’s gaze flick downwards, sees him track the movement before he glances up and meets her eyes again.

“I think we look good together,” Roxanne says honestly.

Megamind’s breath hisses through his teeth. He lets go of her as if her skin has burned him, even through his gloves.

“I don’t find this conversation particularly amusing,” he snarls.

“Come out with me tonight,” Roxanne says recklessly.

In the glass, she sees his expression falter into shock. She turns towards him.

“Wayne’s family has that big costume party tonight,” Roxanne says, “I have an invitation; come with me.”

“What, with the two of us dressed like this?” Megamind says scathingly.

Roxanne grins at him.

“ _Exactly_ like this,” she says, “like you and me.”

“Ah, yes,” Megamind snaps, “getting arrested before I make it through the door should be loads of fun, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting sent to the psych ward—”

Roxanne laughs.

“Charlie Chaplin came in second at a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest,” she says. “A little makeup for both of us—I can part my hair on the other side—come on, Megamind; I thought you liked to live dangerously.”

She gives him a smirk and he glares at her.

“Walking into a party hosted by your boyfriend, with _you_ on my arm and dressed like _that_ ,” Megamind says, “would be less like _living dangerously_ and more like _dying painfully_ , as I am sure you are _aware_.”

Roxanne goes still. She licks her lips, feeling suddenly nervous, although she takes courage from the way Megamind’s gaze flicks to her mouth as she does it.

“Did it—never occur to you that it’s a little odd,” she says hesitantly, “the way I always—go to my work party alone on Halloween?”

Megamind looks at her, clearly not comprehending what she’s hinting.

“Wouldn’t you think,” she says, “that if I had a boyfriend, he would go with me?”

“I think it’s incredibly rude that he doesn’t,” Megamind says.

“The Scotts always have that big party on Halloween,” Roxanne says.

“And it’s rude that he makes you get there by yourself,” Megamind says, sounding annoyed, still obviously not understanding.

Roxanne takes a breath.

“In—in the hypothetical situation,” she says, “of Metro Man…not actually being my boyfriend—how would that…change things? Between you and me?”

Megamind is the one who goes still this time. His expression flickering between anger and confusion.

“—is this you trying to convince me to stop kidnapping you?” he asks.

( _no_ , Roxanne thinks)

“ _Would_ you stop kidnapping me?” she asks.

“No,” Megamind says, the answer too automatic to be anything but the truth.

Roxanne smiles at him brilliantly.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” she says. “He was never my type.”

Megamind’s eyes go wide, his mouth falls slightly open.

Roxanne bites her lip uncertainly, watches his face.

“Does that…change anything else?” she asks. “Between us?”

Megamind stares at her for a long moment, his eyes terribly wide. He’s going pale, Roxanne realizes, and wonders if she’s read all of this completely wrong, if she’s doing this all wrong—

“Why are you doing this?” Megamind whispers, voice trembling, “I don’t—I don’t understand why you’re doing this—”

Roxanne swallows down her nerves and smiles at him, as confident and inviting as she can.

“Because,” she says, “I think I kind of like to live dangerously, too.”

Megamind’s expression goes from fearful uncertainty to blinding fury in a split second. He grabs her wrists and pushes her back against the wall, one of her arms twisted behind her back, the other pinned to the wall above her head. Roxanne gasps at the sudden movement, at his sudden closeness.

“So that’s what this game is, then?” Megamind snarls, his face close to hers. “Flirting with danger? Tease the monster and see how close you can get?”

His lip curls into a sneer.

“Tell me, Miss Ritchi,” he says, “am I _close enough_ , yet?”

“I—”

He’s watching her face, and Roxanne has no idea what he’s looking for, what he’s talking about.

She isn’t frightened, she notes, unsurprised. Even now, with him furious and pinning her to a wall, she doesn’t feel afraid. He didn’t push her hard enough to hurt her, he doesn’t have her arm twisted hard enough to hurt her; he isn’t holding her hard enough to hurt her. He isn’t going to hurt her; he never does.

To be brutally honest, she’s less afraid and more utterly confused and insanely turned on right now. Megamind has never pinned her to a wall like this—ropes, yes, handcuffs and chains, yes, but never his hands and his body holding her in place.

Roxanne twists in his grasp, wondering if he’ll let her go, and sparks of desire dance down her spine when he doesn’t. Oh, this is new; this is exciting—

Oddly, he doesn’t seem to intend the move as sexual, though—his face is close to hers, but their chests aren’t touching, and his lower body is turned so that his hip is holding her in place and their pelvises aren’t touching; the length of his right thigh is pressed to hers, rather than pushed between her legs.

What on earth is he—?

“You’re very good at covering it most of the time,” Megamind says, in a low, rough voice, “But I can see that you’re afraid of me. I know that you’re afraid of me. I’ve heard you scream.”

“—I’m not afraid of you,” Roxanne says breathlessly.

She squirms again, not trying to get away this time, trying to turn her body so that—

( _am I close enough yet_ , he asked, and the answer to that question, quite frankly, is _no_ )

She twists and is rewarded when her leg slides past his, so that it’s between his now, and his leg is pushed between hers, pressed against her at the juncture of her thighs. Megamind growls under his breath and Roxanne gasps, at the sound, at the new position of their bodies.

“It’s a fun game for you, I’m sure, Miss Ritchi,” Megamind says in a dangerous voice. “But this particular monster is _not fucking playing._ ”

Roxanne gasps again, desire pulsing through her.

She feels the moment he decides to let go of her, feels his grip on her loosen, feels him getting ready to step back.

And that is really, really just unacceptable. How dare he shove her against a wall and then not ravish her even just a little bit?

Roxanne arches up into him before he can let her go, and kisses him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...to be continued.
> 
> ( }:D~ MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
> 
> (evil laugh emoticon)
> 
> Thank you all for the wonderful comments! I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

He’s still for a moment, long enough to make her worry that he’s not going to respond, but then he angles his head and kisses her back.

It’s—

—she is a genius, Roxanne decides gleefully; this is fantastic; she just wishes she would have thought of this sooner.

Kissing Megamind is the best thing ever; he kisses her like he’s desperate, like he’s dying, like he’ll die if he stops. It’s intoxicating; Roxanne has never felt so wanted; he kisses her—

He kisses her like she’s perfect.

Megamind lets go of her wrists to cup her face in his hands, the gentle touch a counterpoint to the fierce way he’s kissing her. Roxanne makes a soft sound of desire into the kiss and—

—suddenly Megamind is stumbling back from her, looking horrified and shocked.

“Don’t—don’t do that; you don’t have to do that,” he says wildly, stumbling back a few more steps, until his back hits the wall.

Roxanne blinks at him, head still spinning from the kiss.

“I know I don’t have to,” she says.

She shakes her head, laughing a little. God, her lips are still tingling; her entire body is tingling.

“I did it because I wanted to,” she says, grinning at him.

He doesn’t smile back, though; he keeps staring at her with that look of shock and horror, and Roxanne feels her own smile fade into confusion and uncertainty.

Why is he looking at her like that?

What—

— _monster_ , he’d called himself, Roxanne thinks suddenly, _monster_ , and he’d said _I know you’re afraid of me—_

Wait, did he—? Did he mean that?

Roxanne had honestly taken that, and him holding her against the wall, for a more intense version of their usual restraints-and-threats-as-flirting—had assumed his keeping their bodies apart like that was his way of making sure he didn’t push things to a point where she might feel truly uncomfortable. But if he’d—

Surely he couldn’t have meant—surely he can’t really think of himself as a monster, can’t really think she’s afraid of him.

 _Don’t do that_ , he said, and, remembering, Roxanne’s stomach twists with sudden guilt. Had she really—had she read him completely wrong; did he not want her to kiss him?

He kissed her back, though; he did, and—

_(you don’t have to do that)_

Have to—?

Oh— _oh_.

Does he actually think she only kissed him because—

Does Megamind really think she doesn’t want him back?

Megamind stands, silent and clearly unhappy, across the room from her, pressed back against the wall.

“I’m not afraid of you, Megamind,” Roxanne says.

He flinches, and Roxanne’s heart gives a hard, painful pulse.

Oh—oh, no; he really does think that. About her and about himself. Oh, Megamind—sweetheart, no—

“You’re not a monster,” she says gently, “You’re not anything like a monster.”

Roxanne begins walking towards him, moving slowly, giving him a chance to move away if he wants to.

He doesn’t move away, just stands there, watches her, desire mixed with unhappiness in his expression.

“I kissed you because I wanted to,” Roxanne says.

She stops just in front of him, places her hand flat against his chest. Megamind takes a sharp breath and still doesn’t move away.

“I want to do it again,” Roxanne says.

She’s close enough to see the way his eyes fall to her mouth when she says that, to see the way he tilts his head towards hers just slightly.

Roxanne can feel his heartbeat against her palm, a fast, almost frantic rhythm.

“Do you want me to?” she murmurs. “Do you want me to kiss you again?”

She glances down at his mouth, and then up into his eyes again—

—and something in Megamind’s expression—the thread of self-control, Roxanne thinks—something in Megamind’s expression breaks, leaving behind only raw desperation and desire.

“Yes,” he says,“yes; god—please—”

Roxanne smiles in triumph and takes one last step towards him, closing the distance between them completely, pressing her body against his, pinning him against the wall with her weight.

She slides her leg between his, presses it flush to the juncture of his thighs— Roxanne is nowhere near the Victorian gentleman Megamind is. He gasps when she does it, color flying to his cheeks.

Roxanne smiles at him from inches away, and hears his breathing go ragged. (Both of his hands are still at his sides, though, she notes with dissatisfaction, his palms pressed to the wall, like he’s still convinced he’s not supposed to touch her.)

“Where on earth did you get the idea that I’m afraid of you, Megamind?” she asks softly.

“I—you—just now—” Megamind says, “—fear has—easily observable physical signs; your—”

Roxanne slides her hands down his arms to his wrists. She wraps her fingers around them. Megamind’s hands twitch in her grasp when she does it, but he doesn't pull them away, lets her pin his wrists to the wall at his sides, lets her slide them slowly upwards like that, until she’s holding them above his head.

“—your breathing—” Megamind says, voice shaking, “your breathing picked up; your pulse went faster; your pupils dilated—”

Roxanne blinks.

He saw all of that and thought it was fear?

“Tell me, Megamind,” she asks, “are you afraid of me?”

“Wh-what?” he asks, pupils blown wide as he stares at her. “No—no; what are you—”

Roxanne switches her grip so that she’s pinning both his wrists gently against the wall with one hand and brings her other one down, places two fingers to the pulse point beneath his jaw. Megamind makes a choked noise.

His pulse is racing, his breathing fast and shallow.

“Oh—” he gasps.

“Because all of that? The fast pulse, the quick breathing, the dilated pupils?” Roxanne says. “You’re doing all that right now.”

“I—”

Roxanne slides her hand around to hold the back of his neck. She looks into his face, watching it as she strokes her thumb over his pulse point.

Megamind’s eyelashes flutter and then he arches up into her with a quiet noise, bringing his mouth up to hers.

He doesn’t actually kiss her, though, just brushes his parted lips barely against hers and makes another one of those noises again, this one soft and pleading, like he’s begging her without words to kiss him.

Roxanne kisses him. Hard and deep, just like when he kissed her, wanting him to know he’s just as beautiful and wanted and perfect as his kiss made her feel.

She holds his wrists above his head for a long moment while she kisses him, and then gentles her grip, lacing her fingers with his instead.

Roxanne can’t pin him to the wall exactly the way that he did her, can’t truly hold him in place; he’s strong enough to easily push her away. He doesn’t seem to want to, though, seems more than happy to let her hold him here like this. The earlier kiss, he ended in a panic; this kiss doesn’t end until Roxanne breaks it at last, needing to breathe. She leans her forehead against his and pants for breath.

“—you screamed,” Megamind says into the space between their mouths. “When—when you saw me.”

Roxanne leans away to look at his face.

“What?” she says, frowning at the non-sequitur.

Except—wait, no; not a non-sequitur; before the kiss that scattered her thoughts, they were talking about why he thinks she’s afraid of him.

“Last week,” Megamind says. “When—last week during the—during Psycho Delic’s smoke attack.”

Roxanne lets go of him and steps back to look at him fully. He looks—he doesn’t have any loose clothing or hair that she could rumple, but he manages to look very thoroughly kissed anyway.

He also looks miserable; pressed back against the wall, his shoulders drawn inwards. The idea that she could be afraid of him seems especially ludicrous to Roxanne in that moment.

“The smoke was hallucinogenic, Megamind,” she says, “and it’s designed to induce a psychological fear response. Everyone was screaming.”

“No,” Megamind says forcefully. “You weren’t. You had already been exposed, but you weren’t screaming, Roxanne. You didn’t start screaming until I took your arm and you turned around and saw me.”

Oh—Roxanne realizes, guilt and sympathy and affection twisted up together, oh, and he’d thought—

“It’s not just hallucinogenic, Roxanne,” Megamind says, and there are tears in his eyes now, “and it doesn’t just induce a psychological fear response. The smoke, it—it tears away the barrier between your conscious and subconscious mind. It brings the things you’re already afraid of to the surface, makes you see them, makes you feel them.”

“Megamind—”

“So that’s how I know you’re afraid of me, Roxanne,” he says, clearly forcing the words out, “you have to be, deep down. You—”

“You were dead.”

“I—what?” Megamind says.

Roxanne wraps her arms around herself.

She feels cold again with the echo of fear at the memory, for all that Megamind is standing in front of her right now, very much alive. Roxanne doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to purge that from her memory, the image of Megamind dead, his head caved in, black blood oozing from the wound, his eyes white and dead and sightless, staring at nothing.

“When I—when I turned around,” she forces herself to say, “I saw you, and you were dead. You were—that’s why I screamed, I couldn’t help it; you were dead, Megamind, god—and, later, in the hospital, even after the smoke wore off, I still thought you were dead; I thought—I was so sure you were—and I couldn’t stop crying.”

She feels tears rising again, even now—

“So stupid,” she mutters, wiping them away, “I can see that you’re fine, but I still—” she cuts herself off.

Megamind stares at her, his eyes wide and shocked.

Roxanne takes a steadying breath, lets it out.

“I’m not afraid of you, Megamind,” she says, trying to force her voice not to tremble. It doesn’t really work. “I’m afraid—for you; I’m afraid of—of losing you, and I know you’re not mine, but—”

“I am.”

Roxanne takes a sharp little breath.

“I am yours,” Megamind says, looking at her, not looking away from her.

A kind of light seems to burst slowly inside of Roxanne.

“What do you see?” she asks, not trying to keep the tremble from her voice anymore. “With the smoke?”

“It doesn’t work on me,” Megamind says, still looking at her. “But I would think that my—reaction, earlier, when I thought you were in danger, would tell you what it is that I’m afraid of.”

He straightens slowly up from the wall and steps towards Roxanne. She gives a tearful kind of laugh and reaches out to take his hand, tangling their fingers together.

Megamind looks down at their joined hands with a startled expression. He looks back up and meets her eyes again. Roxanne smiles at him a little tremulously, and Megamind reaches out to touch her face with his other hand, his fingertips light against her cheek. He glances down at her lips, then back up at her eyes, and then he hesitates a moment, watching her face like he’s giving her a chance to pull away.

Roxanne reaches up with her free hand and touches his mouth, her fingertips just as light as his on her cheek. She glances down at his mouth, lets her fingertips trail down to touch his chin instead. And then she looks back up into his eyes, hoping her expression shows what she’s feeling.

Perhaps it does, because Megamind takes a small, quick breath, his eyes widening slightly.

And then he leans forward and kisses her.

Their first two kisses were desperate and passionate. This one is—uncertain at first, like he’s asking a question—and then—

Megamind breaks the kiss.

“ _Oh_ ,” he says breathless and wondering, like he finally, finally understands that the answer to the question is yes.

Roxanne makes a wordless sound of agreement and kisses him again, quick and light, almost playful. He laughs, soft and startled, into the kiss, and Roxanne leans back to smile at him.

He looks radiantly happy, and also incredibly hopeful.

“Would you—” he says breathlessly, “were you—serious, before? Do you—would you really be willing to date me?”

Roxanne rolls her eyes at him. This beautiful, brilliant idiot.

“I literally just asked you out on a date ten minutes ago, Megamind. Yes.”

Megamind laughs, the sound as shocked as it is joyful.

“Ah, yes,” he says, “right, your—Halloween party plan of insanity.”

Roxanne grins at him.

“We can do something else if you want,” she says.

“No, no; I like the Halloween Party Plan of Insanity!” Megamind says, grinning back at her, and she can hear the way he’s stressing the name of the plan, verbally capitalizing it, the way he would with the name of one of his evil plots.

It is incredibly endearing; she finds she has to kiss him again. He’s smiling as she does, which is absolutely wonderful.

“Come on, then,” she says, breaking the kiss and tugging him towards the bathroom. “Let’s get your makeup figured out first.”

“This is going to be a disaster,” he says, sounding gleeful.

“It is not going to be a disaster!” Roxanne laughs and smacks his arm playfully.

“If you say so, Miss Ritchi.”

Roxanne groans theatrically and kneels to get the case that holds the makeup she doesn’t usually use out from under the sink. She’s pretty sure she has some old face paint in there, from another Halloween several years ago; the blue should be unopened.

“Do not even start with the Miss Ritchi thing again!” she says, straightening up with the case. “You called me Roxanne a minute ago.”

She puts the case down on the sink and flips it open, looking through the contents for—ha! blue face paint.

“Did I?” Megamind murmurs.

Roxanne looks up to find him watching her with his eyes half lidded. His expression makes her flush pleasurably.

“Mmhm,” Roxanne says. She hops up to sit on the sink, then crooks her finger at him. “After the second time I kissed you.”

Megamind moves towards her, standing between her legs, his hands resting on the counter on either side of her thighs. Roxanne feels a little thrill at that, but just dips her sponge in the blue face paint.

“I suppose I did,” Megamind says.

He bites his lip and looks up at her through his lashes, the expression honestly shy, rather than teasing.

“That’s how I always think of you,” he says.

Roxanne tilts her head questioningly.

“ _Roxanne_ ,” Megamind says.

She takes a sharp breath and leans down to kiss him.

“Do you think of me often, then, Megamind?” she asks as she breaks the kiss. She gives him a teasing smirk.

“Temptress,” Megamind says breathlessly. “Yes.”

Roxanne’s smirk widens into a pleased smile as she starts to apply the blue paint over Megamind’s face.

“—Roxanne,” Megamind says after a little pause. His voice sounds wistful. “Do you—ever think of me?”

She pauses for a moment in applying the face paint.

“—yeah, I do,” she says, “I—kind of didn’t really notice how much, before tonight, but I actually sort of think about you a lot.”

Megamind looks surprised.

“I was thinking about you at the party,” she says. “And I was thinking about you when I picked this costume out. And when I picked the other one out, too; it was a starfleet miniskirt uniform; I’ve been planning it for months; I was so looking forward to seeing your reaction to it.”

“A miniskirt uniform?” Megamind asks. “From the original series?”

Roxanne laughs at his expression.

“Yeah,” she says, “Command gold.”

“What rank?”

She grins to herself. Megamind would ask that.

“Commander,” she says. Megamind makes an impressed noise. “I’ll show you sometime, after I get the punch stain out,” she says, feeling daring.

“Really?”

She bites her lip, smiling.

“I told you,” she says, “I want to see your reaction.”

“ _Wow_ ,” Megamind says breathlessly.

Roxanne laughs again and closes up the blue paint.

“Here, I think the blue is done,” she says. “Put on some eyeliner.”

“I’m already wearing eyeliner,” Megamind points out, but he takes the black eyeliner pencil from her obediently.

“Yeah, I know,” Roxanne says, grinning at him. “Put it on thicker than you normally do. And darken your eyebrows and your beard with it; we want it to look not quite real.”

Megamind moves to the other side of the sink and leans forward to put on the eyeliner. Roxanne hops down and takes off her crown to re-part her hair on the other side, then puts the crown back on and swiftly begins to apply her own makeup.

“I should call Minion,” Megamind says.

Roxanne makes a noise of agreement, and then glances over at him. He’s done with the eyeliner, she notes, studying the effect with approval.

“Mm, very nice,” she says, “Your eyes look even more gorgeous than usual; you should wear your eyeliner like that more often.”

Megamind blushes; she can see it even beneath the layer of paint. Oh, he’s so easy to fluster; dating him is going to be so much fun—

— _Megamind_ , she thinks, wonder mixed with glee, she’s going to date _Megamind._

“What are you going to tell Minion?” she asks.

Megamind gives her a sly look from beneath his lashes. With the dark eyeliner it comes out close to a smolder.

“I was planning on making you explain, actually,” he says with a sharp, wicked smile.

Roxanne caps her lipstick, laughing, and Megamind’s gaze flicks down to her mouth, catches there.

“Your mouth looks different,” he says, sounding amazed. “Not just the color, but—how did you do that?”

“Lipliner just slightly around the outside of my top lip,” Roxanne says, “makes it look like it curves more dramatically.”

“You made the _shape_ different,” Megamind says, his eyes still fixed on her mouth, “That’s _fascinating_.”

He leans forward almost absently, clearly intending to kiss her. Roxanne stops him, tapping his nose.

“Ah-ah! No kissing! You’ll smudge the lipstick.”

“Cruel woman,” Megamind mutters. “I just finally got to kiss you, and now you want me to stop?”

“Turnabout’s fair play,” Roxanne says. “You’re making me explain this to Minion.”

Megamind laughs and hops up to sit on the sink. She plucks the eyeliner from his hand and fills in her own brows, thickening them just slightly, then lines her eyes much more dramatically than she usually does. Leaning back, she regards herself in the mirror.

Megamind makes a soft sound; she glances over at his reflection and sees him looking at her with dark eyes.

“Here—” he says quietly, reaching for the pencil in her hand. “Let me.”

He takes the pencil gently from her. Roxanne turns to face him, standing between his legs, the way he did hers earlier. He places the fingertips of his free hand beneath her chin, tipping it up and turning it slightly to the side. Leaning down, he touches the point of the eyeliner pencil to a point just slightly beneath her mouth.  
Her beauty mark, Roxanne realizes, as he darkens the point.

“Can’t forget this,” he murmurs.

He pulls the pencil away, and looks at the mark for a moment, then looks up at her, meeting her eyes.

“I know I never can,” he says.

Roxanne sways forward and Megamind bends down. He stops, though, stops just short of a kiss, with his lips a breath away from hers.

“Lipstick,” he says softly. He doesn’t move away.

Roxanne takes an unsteady breath.

“You horrible, horrible tease,” she breathes.

“Turnabout,” Megamind says, his breath ghosting over her lips. “Fair play.”

Roxanne goes up on her toes to nudge his nose with her own. She rocks back on her heels again and grins at his rather awestruck smile.

* * *

Megamind, much more nervous than he wishes Roxanne to realize, keeps his arm linked tightly with hers as the two of them round a very large decorative plant and step in sight of the ballroom. He looks out at the crowd in apprehension; a large number of people in the crowd look back, their eyes falling on him, on him with Roxanne—

—and then they all go back to drinking and dancing and talking.

Megamind feels his jaw drop slightly.

It—

It worked. It actually worked.

And not only that—no one at the party seems to find a couple dressed up as Megamind and Roxanne at all shocking.

Megamind turns to look at Roxanne. He can feel how wide his eyes are, and she’s smirking at him, that gorgeous, wicked, knowing smirk that makes him want desperately to kiss her, lipstick be damned.

He’d never thought—no matter what Roxanne had said about being willing to be seen with him, he’d always thought that it would never work out—that even if he retired from supervillainy, renounced it, reformed, that even then, people would never accept—

—but apparently the idea of him and Roxanne together isn’t a completely odd one to the people of Metrocity.

Possible.

This is going to be possible.

Megamind pulls Roxanne onto the dance floor and into his arms, pulls her close. Roxanne laughs and lets him, winds her arms around his neck, and Megamind feels as if he could dance on air if he tried, his heart feels so light.

“I told you,” Roxanne whispers. “I told you this would work.”

“Yes,” Megamind whispers back, lips against her ear, “yes, you did. My brilliant, beautiful Temptress. My clever, wicked Evil Queen. Do you think people would stare if I kissed you now, Roxanne?”

She laughs.

“Let’s find out,” she says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end.
> 
> HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 
> 
> Thank you all for the lovely comments! I hope you all enjoyed the final part of the story!


End file.
